Last of Us details spill from GI: story info, online confirmed

The first details on The Last of Us’s story and gameplay have emerged from the latest Game Informer, as has confirmation there’ll be some sort of online mode.

The game is set in a world killed by a human fungus outbreak 20 years ago, as shown in the debut trailer.

The main playable character is Joel, a weapons and drugs smuggler. The young girl, Ellie, is living in a boarding house in a military quarantine zone (QZ), and is fascinated by items, such as CDs and books, from the old world before the fungus outbreak.

Anyone spotted with any sign of the fungal infection in a QZ is executed on the spot.

Joel removes Ellie from her camp as a favour for a dying friend. Their relationship is apparently inspired by movies such as True Grit or Road to Perdition, and by that between Nathan Drake and Tenzen in Uncharted 2.

The demo GI saw takes place in Pittsburgh, with Joel and Ellie ambushed by hunters. Being a former hunter himself, Joel has to fend off scavengers throughout the world.

The presentation mainly focussed on human enemies, not the infected species shown in the trailer, because it’s “the focus of the game,” according to Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells. The infected do seem to be teased at the end of the demo, according to the magazine.

Online support confirmed by Naughty Dog

Naughty Dog confirmed to GI that the game will have some sort of online functionality. What that is remains to be seen.

“We’re going to have some sort of online component,” said director Bruce Straley. “We’re working on a bunch of ideas, but we haven’t nailed anything down. We definitely know it’s going to be awesome.”

It may be a new IP for the studio, but in case the unthinkable happens, the story will be its own thing, meaning no cliffhangers for one.

“The story is self-contained. The story stands on its own,” said creative director Neil Druckmann. “We don’t end on a cliffhanger. The characters and the journey they go through ends with this story.”